Rita Dorothy Guggenheim Lerner (May 7 1929 – July 16, 1994) was an American physicist, librarian, editor, and science communicator who worked for many years at the

American Institute of Physics The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...

. With George L. Trigg, she was co-editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Physics'' (Addison-Wesley, 1981).

Life

Rita Guggenheim was born in

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1929, and was a 1945 graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School. She earned a bachelor's degree from

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and h ...

in 1949, and was managing editor of the college yearbook. She went to

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

for graduate study, earning a master's degree in 1951 and (as Rita G. Lerner) completing her Ph.D. in 1956; her dissertation was ''Microwave Studies of Molecular Structure''. She came to the American Institute of Physics in the 1960s, hired as part of a program funded by the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

for the improvement of scientific communication. She died on July 16, 1994 in

Ardsley, New York Ardsley is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is part of the town of Greenburgh. The village's population was 4,452 at the 2010 census. The mayor of Ardsley is Nancy Kaboolian. The Ardsley post office serves the entire ...

Recognition

Lerner was named a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respon ...

in 1986.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lerner, Rita G. 1929 births 1994 deaths American physicists American women physicists Radcliffe College alumni Columbia University alumni Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science